I found that 000webhost is shocking, 1 minute the servers are fine the next its too busy.
Im so glad I went straight to paid hosting instead of messing around with free s**t

The type of hosting really depends on what your forum is about. If you plan to do things that are against the law or against standard hosting rules then offshore is for you. But if your creating a trutfull forum about ... fish, then standard hosting will be alot less hazzle and most likely cheaper.